Riko
by Sophie Tribiani
Summary: A small story on the side just after the gang fails to find Cross in China. Lavi is set to be a bookman with no emotional attachment to anything or anyone, but when an annoying and intriguing new antagonistic girl, Lavi isn't sure he could keep that up.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, I'm Sophie and I don't write a lot of fanfictions. But this character and her and Lavi's story almost came to me in a dream, and so I decided to write this and post it. Hopefully someone out there likes it and even if no one does, I posted it. **

Lavi reached up his hand and wipes his brow of sweat. It was a hot day in the order, but most importantly, he was tired. Not just from his morning training, but really tired. He looked to Allen who had the same weary look on his face.

They had missed Cross by a day at most. They had gone through so much just to arrive in China, and they had missed him. Lavi was frustrated as well as tired.

"Hey," another droopy voice sounded behind him and both he and Allen turned to find Lenalee with both hands occupied by tea cups, "Sorry, but the Asian branch didn't have any mugs. Or coffee, for that matter. Green tea's the only thing you'll get."

"That's a little too typical," Lavi muttered and brought the boiling beverage to his lips.

"They usually have other things," Lenalee said, handing Allen the second cup, "Trust me, I grew up on coffee here. But there's been a rat problem recently."

"A rat?" Lavi spat some of his tea out grumpily, "Well, I'd like to find that rat and smack it on the behind until it coughs up all the coffee!"

Allen snickered and took a sip of the tea, "Someone's grumpy today."

Suddenly, the other boy spits his tea out too and looked as if he finally understood that Lavi had not swallowed not only because he was unhappy. Lenalee took his cup and smelled it. Her face contorted into a grimace and she set it down on the wooden railing.

When Lenalee leaned against the rails that separated them and an a-thousand-feet long fall down the middle of the tower, Lavi noticed that she was slouching. Lenalee never slouched.

"But there's good news," she said as if she had read his sad spirit, "My friend Riko's coming in from Russia."

"How's that good news?" Lavi mumbled and Lenalee shot him a lethal stare. Now even he realized that his overload of gloom was unnecessary and that he should stop.

"Lavi," Allen said in a cautious voice, then turned to Lenalee, "I'm sure he'll be of great help. We need the help, really. Finding my master is worst job in the world..."

As Allen trailed off, what seemed like a large boulder appeared on top of his head, weighing his spirit down even further. Lavi got up and patted his friend lightly on the shoulder.

Just then Krory walked by. He said hello with his shoulders hunched and his fangs loose. He didn't even try to hide them like he usually did.

"Actually," Lenalee added, "Riko's going on another mission to find Klaud. They think she's in Germany."

"Why Klaud? Why not help us with our mission to find Master?" Allen now looked like he was on the brink of tears. He sucked in a shaky breath.

Lavi held his cup of tea out to him, "Tea, it'll calm ya."

Allen met Lavi's easy-going smile with a threatening glare. It was clear that Lavi was going to get killed with only stares that morning.

"Riko was Klaud's apprentice. They had a close relationship, but both of them wanted to maximize their efforts and spread out to kill more akuma with each mission," Lenalee sighed, "Riko hops from branch to branch and barely stays at any for a long period of time. We met in London when I first arrived there."

"Sounds brutal," Lavi started, "I bet he's boring. He's boring and brutal. Oh, and he has battle scars!"

"Actually, he's not..." Lenalee began but Lavi had no intention of knowing who Riko really was. He just wanted to trash the person who had an excuse to not help them look for Cross.

"Big, ugly battle scars," Lavi then started to waves his hands dramatically around his face, "And he'd be..."

A sharp stab connected with Lavi's body from behind and he almost fell to his knees in pain. He writhed around but realized that there was one arm wrapped around his mid-section, a hand grasping his neck, and a foot stepping down on his calf.

"Actually," a cold voice whispered in his ear, "He's a she."

Lavi couldn't turn to look at his attacker, and so he peered at the terrified expressions on Krory and Allen's faces. Lenalee, however, looked overjoyed and pushed past Lavi. The person behind let him go when Lenalee came over.

"Hi!?" Lenalee squealed as Lavi got up to see two girls embrace. He couldn't believe that the scrawny teen, who looked barely stronger than Lenalee, could have held him down like that. He suddenly felt weak and embarrassed. Allen and Krory then started to laugh at him, which didn't help his self-esteem.

When the girl was finished with Lenalee, she strolled calmly towards Lavi, pressing him against the railing. She held up her arm and peeled back her uniform sleeves. "No battle scars," she said in the same cold tone, "And don't call me boring."

She stepped back and as Lenalee introduced her to the other two boys, Lavi tried to clear his head. He shook out his body and tried to relax but his heart was pounding hard in his chest. And then the girl faced him again.

"He'll do it," Krory whispered from behind Lavi, "He'll go all Lavi and yell 'Strike!'"

"Yeah," Allen agreed.

Suddenly Lenalee stepped away from her friend, who barely seemed to notice the commotion behind Lavi, and leaned towards the whispering pair, "For ten bucks, I say he won't."

"Deal," they said in unison.

Lenalee stepped back again and gave Lavi a flashy smile, "Lavi, this is Riko, the friend I was talking about."

"How do you do?" Riko asked and extended her hand. The movements seemed robotic and her tone forced, as if she was doing this purely out of etiquette.

Lavi swallowed hard and took her hand, "I'm okay. How are you?"

Just as Riko pulled her hand away hastily did Lavi notice how cold it was. "It was a rhetorical question," she stated.

Lavi suddenly felt mad at how she was treating his kindness even though he had been rather rude with his comments before, "Yeah, well, my question was actually out of caring and kindness and you can show a little respect for that."

Riko regarded him as if he was an insect. She then walked away with Lenalee eagerly following. When Lenalee whispered in her ear and showed her a ten dollar bill, however, Riko actually laughed.

Lavi stayed stunned as he stood with the other two equally astonished guys. "Does she remind you of Kanda?" he asked as he watched her go.

"Yeah," Allen agreed, again.

"Why didn't you do it?" Krory yelled, "I lost ten bucks because of you."

Lavi snickered at his own weird behaviour, or lack thereof. Riko had showed him her smooth pale skin. Her face was hard yet delicate in a remorseful way. Her shorts were longer than Lenalee's, but still above the knees, and she had worn her uniform jacket undone with her white dress-shirt showing in the middle. He would've went completely berserk for a girl with half her looks. But Lavi hadn't said anything out of the ordinary.

"Oh, no..." he muttered, "Am I starting to become normal?"

There was a pause and then the whole hallway was filled with Krory and Allen's laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

"No!" they shouted in unison. Lavi looked over at Riko who was trying to keep her distance while still being able to listen to the phone. Lavi heard Komui wince on the other side.

"Come on, you guys!" he shouted back, "Work together as a team! There's no N O in team! Go team!"

"Shut up, Komui," Riko snapped at the phone and crossed her arms.

"Komui, I can't work with her!" Lavi complained and crossed his free arm awkwardly over the phone in his other hand then crossed back and tried to stand properly. Riko stared at him, amused.

"Sure you can, Lavi! You can work with anyone! That's the beauty of you."

"Nothing beautiful from where I'm standing," Riko muttered.

Lavi turned on her, his face reddening, "Hey!"

"Riko!" Komui blasted from the phone, "I can't let you go alone to find Klaud because she's already refused to stay put, and I know the minute you find her, you'll follow her every instruction and we'll lose you both."

"It's nice to know you have so much faith in me, Komui," Riko said.

"It's the truth. Lavi and Bookman are going with you to give you leverage."

"I don't need leverage, if she doesn't want to come in, she won't."

"Riko, you're not understanding," Komui dragged in a pleading voice, "We're not asking you to visit her, we're asking you to bring her to safety. They're targeting the generals."

Riko sighed, "If they can't protect themselves, how are we regulars going to protect them? She knows that, she's not going to come in if she doesn't want to!"

"Why not?" Lavi shouted over the fighting. He was genuinely curious. Riko looked at him suspiciously. "Why not come in?" he asked again.

She stared at him as if he was joking, but when she realized he wasn't, she took a deep breath, "The order isn't a home. It's a pit-stop where we're not supposed to spend more than a day or two in. We have finders, chiefs, people who work to keep the order so we don't have to. If you're someone who cares at all about their job as an exorcist, you'll understand. There are way too many akuma out there for us stay put."

Riko's determined eyes didn't quiver at all under Lavi's gaze. She was serious, perhaps the most serious exorcist he had met. It felt like she was an exorcist and nothing else, that she had devoted her whole being to it and disliked anyone who didn't.

"I understand that," Komui added, "But she needs to come in for her own safety. If she lives, she'll kill more. Lavi and Bookman are only there to help you. They'll follow you."

Riko glared at the phone, and then at Lavi who immediately felt very nervous. She took a step closer and put her face an inch away from his.

"You tell me what to do," she pronounced every word through clenched teeth, "I break both your arms off and make you eat them."

And then she turned on her heel and stomped out of the office, leaving Lavi to try to calm his horrified heart.

"Lavi?" Komui chimed, "Lavi, you still there?"

"Eh..." was all he could manage.

Komui made a noise that almost sounded like a laugh, "You can tell why we don't usually team her up on missions."


	3. Chapter 3

Lavi was still frightened in the afternoon when they pulled out an old wooden boat into the water-filled tunnels on the west side of the order. He kept his distance at the back of the boat as the Bookman pushed them through the water with something that was more of a stick than an oar.

After a while in the dark, Lavi noticed Riko glance quickly at him. She seemed annoyed even though he had done absolutely nothing. "You have questions," she stated matter-of-factly.

"No, I don't," Lavi lied, scooting a little further away.

"You have questions."

"No I don't."

"Stop lying."

"I'm not lying."

"What?!" Riko roared and even Bookman hesitated before his next stroke.

There was finally a moment of silence, but it was eerie. Lavi thought now that she had sensed it, might as well ask a question.

"Who are you?" he started frustratingly, "I've never met you. Never even heard of you."

"Are you expecting to know all the exorcists in the world?"

"No, but I want to know the ones who wants to break my arms off and make me eat them!" he said in a serious tone. Usually he would've started laughing at his own joke by now, but he didn't feel like cracking up.

Riko sucked in a breath of chilling air through the space between her teeth, "I didn't come on this mission with you because I wanted to get to know you. I came because I was forced to, but that doesn't mean that I'm forced to get to know you or for you to get to know me."

Lavi threw his hands up in the air, exasperated, "You've gotta be kidding me. You asked me what I wanted to say!"

"Lavi," Bookman interrupted, his face concealed in the shadows, "She's being a better bookman than you are. Keep your focus on the mission ahead of us."

Lavi stared at the old geezer and then back at the new life-ruiner. Both of them had turned away from him. He sighed and slumped his shoulders.

A few hours later the trio headed out on a short train ride across the country. All three have been particularly quiet, especially Lavi, who only answered questions when necessary with a shrug or a grunt. He had never found himself so awkward and uncomfortable. Lavi watched the back of Riko's head as she sat across the aisle from him and stared out at the passing terrain. She must have sensed his eyes on her for she turned abruptly. Bookman had stepped out to who knew where, and so when Riko came over and planted herself on the end of the seat, Lavi was able to move towards the window to make room for her. She gave him the straight glare she had before but with less of a threatening energy.

"I come off strong for most people," she stated in her matter-of-fact way that Lavi was beginning to find unique to her. Riko then sat back and Lavi wasn't sure what to do next.

"I have a hard time trusting people," she said in her softer tone, "I'm sorry for..."

"Don't be," Lavi suddenly felt mad as he had before when they first met. Riko hadn't mean anything she said then and she still wasn't meaning anything she was saying now.

"What?" she asked, her voice turned immediately cold again.

"You're just doing this because you think you should, as proper etiquette goes. If that's the case, then save it, I don't need to hear fake, memorized lines."

Riko gave a soft snicker in astonishment and climbed back into the seat across the aisle. This time, no matter how long Lavi stared at the back of her head, she didn't turn.


	4. Chapter 4

They stopped at a small town at the border for the night. The train didn't end there, but Bookman thought it best to check out the area for the strange going-ons that he had heard the passengers mention on the train.

"So that was what he was doing?" Lavi whispered out of an instinct to joke. He then realized that no one was behind him to heartily laugh along with him except Riko, and he wondered what exactly made that girl laugh.

They were the only ones to step off the train at this station and when they stopped at the edge of the village, all three froze.

"It's barely six in the evening," Riko pointed out, "Where is everyone?"

"Maybe there's just not a lot of people here, or everyone's eating supper," Lavi suggested.

"No," Bookman replied, "It seems more deserted than anything else."

And with that the old man waddled forward into the village with Riko and Lavi following close behind him. They kept their eyes peeled for anything suspicious, but besides the fact that this was a ghost village, nothing else seemed out of place. They saw a small wooden building like all the other ones with the roof low and flat. A little sign hung just beside the door indicating that it was an inn of some sort. Bookman walked in without word.

A skinny man with a goatee greeted them at the front desk, which was more of a table than a front desk for an inn. His smile seemed forced and a little bit hostile, "What can I get you?"

"Two rooms, please," Bookman said half-heartedly as he glared around the room cautiously.

"Hey, pops, why is the village so quiet?" Lavi asked and gave a nervous laugh, trying to keep his voice light.

"A plague was here," the innkeeper said with his back to them while he bent down to get something.

"What kind of plague?" Riko added.

"Not sure, but people started dropping like flies. There'd be screams and thumps in the night and often people are wiped out by families or people close to them," the man turned around and gave them a shuttered smiled, "So what brings you here?"

"We're exor..." Lavi started and immediately got interrupted by Riko pulling his arm towards her.

"Engaged!" she said in an over-enthusiastic tone and looked up at Lavi, "Right, sweetheart?"

Lavi swallowed and tried to wrap his head around the idea that the girl who wanted to do him serious bodily harm was now pretending to love and care for him. "Yes," he shook his head of any hesitant thoughts and dedicated himself to playing the role. She might not trust him, but he trusted that she had enough experience to make a quick beneficial decision.

"And him?" the man looked over to Bookman who was just standing in the corner of the room watching their conversation.

Lavi couldn't help but laugh, "He's our servant."

"Father!" Riko butted in, "My father. They have problems, in-laws, you know. My father is a servant, a butler..."

"Yes," Bookman stepped forward, "Which means we need those two rooms and quick as possible, please."

The man shrugged and waved them up a set of dark stairs to the second floor. He opened up a dingy door and handed Lavi only one key, explaining that the rooms were joined from the inside and therefore they could go through and open the other door from the other side.

Just as he turned to descend the stairs, Lavi shouted, "Hey, we forgot to pay."

Two shots suddenly sound from behind Lavi and he watched as the man's meager figure crumple to the floor. Lavi turned to see Riko holding a gun steady in her hands. She then slid her gun back into a holster at the back of her belt.

"What are you doing?" Lavi yelled.

"The money deity," Riko stated and bolted into the room. Bookman and Lavi followed her in and saw her examine the scene outside the small windows. A smell hit Lavi the minute he entered the room. A smell of an old room which had not been used for a while. A long while. It smelled of death and sadness and loneliness and pain. It smelled like an akuma just after being turned.

"What?" Lavi asked again.

"The innkeeper had a shrine for the money deity in the corner of the room," Riko explained, turning around to face them, "He would never forget to ask us for our money."

"I was standing beside that shrine," Bookman added, "No one has put anything there or even cleaned it for the last few months."

Riko reached behind her and seemed to keep her hand on her gun as if it was a security blanket, "They'll come to get us now."

"In that case, we leave," Lavi said firmly.

"And go where?" Riko asked.

"Out, into the open, that's the only way to fight them properly."

"No, you hide until they come out into the open and you pick them off."

Lavi stared at Riko's new idea. He always looked for open areas, but maybe his hammer needed it and her gun was better at sniping down akuma from afar. And also, she has been on her own for some time now, it would be stupid for her to go into the open on her own to fight all those akuma.

He stepped closer to Riko who reacted by stepping back, "I need more space for my innocence to work without having to go through the trouble of destroying these buildings."

"What's your weapon?" Riko asked curiously.

"Out into the open," Lavi ignored her question, "With my friends behind me, that's how I fight."

Lavi expected some nasty remark about how he had just called her his friend, but she smiled a weary smile and said, "Some people aren't that lucky."

"We have to go," Bookman interrupted. He had moved to the window when Riko had moved away and must have saw something alarming.

They raced out the room and down the stairs, past the pile of ashes which the innkeeper had been reduced to. They raced out into the street, Lavi already wheeling out his hammer, "Big hammer, little hammer, grow, grow, grow!"

Lavi screamed out for the fire stamp and the first two akuma to approach the inn deteriorated into ash. He heard bangs of a gun behind him and saw two more drop from the sky. Needles too were flying in the air. But there were a lot more akuma in the sky than they had anticipated and being elevated on his hammer, Lavi saw that many more were on the horizon clumped into a ball over a church.

"Lavi!" Riko yelled after his second fire stamp knocked out four akuma, "What do you see?"

He relayed what he saw to his two companions on the ground.

"Could it be innocence?" Riko asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"We can't leave it if it is," Lavi responded, shrinking his hammer because the first wave of akuma had lessened. But by then Bookman was already flying a good hundred meters in front. Only when Riko started running did Lavi realize how difficult it must be for her to fight. Her gun could snipe from a distance, but it provided her with no speed like Lavi, Bookman, Lenalee, and even Kanda's equipment-type weapons. But just as he came down to pull her onto the handle of his hammer, Riko pulled away and smiled. She flipped her gun twice and a click indicated that she had turned something off. Then, bending her knees, she shot at the ground and her body propelled upwards into the air. She rose higher than Lavi and shot again, this time allowing Lavi to see that she was shooting highly concentrated gas particles to propel herself upwards.

They all made it to the clump of akuma at about the same time. Lavi quickly counted a good forty, but Bookman had already started taking some down. Another click came from Riko's gun and she started to help.


	5. Chapter 5

"Idiot," Bookman hissed as he walked beside Riko.

They were on a dirt path that Bookman had chosen to traverse the forest. He had decided it was better to find the next station on the train's path than to go back to the village.

Riko pulled Lavi's arms tighter around her neck. She was half dragging, half piggy-backing him through the forest. His legs were long and he was almost a foot taller than her. Lavi's feet left long lines in the dirt, but Riko couldn't find a better way to carry him without physically exerting herself so she wouldn't be able to walk quickly. His head clunked against the back of hers; it was hard to look forward when he was pushing down on her neck.

"Didn't count on him to bump his head," Bookman muttered.

"Actually," Riko interrupted, "He was trying to save me."

Bookman let out a soft snicker.

"Can I ask you something?" Riko asked. She knew to be polite to the elderly, and besides, she didn't want to cross the man who can punch a thousand holes in her guts.

"Yes."

"Why would he do that?" she hesitated, "It's not like I'm nice to him, I'm his friend."

"Leave it to Lavi to save total strangers."

"But why?"

Bookman sighed, "Lavi has been training to be a bookman ever since he was six years of age. To be a bookman, one must be unbiased, disconnected from the world. This way, we see history only as facts. Does Lavi seem very emotionless to you? Is he like me?"

"No," Riko replied.

"It's just who he is."

"Why don't you be more strict on him?"

Bookman sighed, "Maybe I'm not as emotionless as I make myself out to be."

The next mile or so was quiet, then Riko felt Lavi's head shift against her neck. With a sudden jolt, he pulled his arms away from her and fell to the ground.

"I wasn't using my feet," Lavi stated to himself, shocked. He got up slowly and rubbed his temple.

"Why were you..." he stopped mid-sentence, staring at Riko in horror.

She shrugged, "You weren't expecting Bookman to carry you."

"Actually," Lavi said angrily, directing his gaze to his master, "That would've been better than having a girl do it."

"Hey!" Riko shouted, "I'm just as competent as any man, if not more, so don't ever use being a girl as a reason for anything. Bookman's half the size of you, it only made sense for me to carry you. Now that you are awake, can we please move faster. I want to get out of this forest before it's nightfall."

And with that, Riko turned and took long strides down the dirt path.


	6. Chapter 6

The next train they took brought them up north in order to weave around the Himalayas. It kept going up until the temperatures dropped and almost froze Lavi's nose off. They arrived in Russia after a few days.

"How are you not cold?" Lavi asked, shivering dramatically. Bookman had packed provisions for the cold and Lavi was able to buy a thick jerkin off a man on the train. Besides pulling on a pair of long pants, Riko didn't do anything else to brace herself against the cold. Neither, Lavi noted, was she shivering.

"Used to it," Riko shrugged as they stepped into the station, "I'm from Russia."

Lavi froze, almost literally, "You're what?"

"Oh, the things you don't know about me."

Even though his shock had stopped him from shivering for a few seconds, the cold was strong and he started up again, blowing into his cupped hands, "You're right. I don't know anything about you, so why don't you tell me something about yourself."

"Why don't you tell me something about yourself," Riko snapped back, stopping Lavi mid-stride. They stood there in the busy train station with people pushing and shoving all around them. A big clock ticked from above the large entrance doors and shouts from peddlers made the atmosphere even more chaotic. Bookman had already been walking ahead of them and didn't seem to notice their abrupt stop.

Riko leaned towards Lavi, looking straight at his face with cool blue eyes, "Where are you from? Why are you training to be a bookman? Where's your family? Why do you have an eyepatch? Why do you care at all what happens to any of us? What's your name? Lavi's a fake one, Lavi what? Why Lavi?" she paused, "Who are you?"

Riko tried to find his reaction in his one green eye which seemed perplexed but gave her nothing else. She flipped her head around and started again to walk forward, not sure of Lavi was following at all.


End file.
